New online ‘eBiolabs’ resources to support first-year teaching

The School of Physiology and Pharmacology is about to roll out novel, interactive web-based support for first-year undergraduate practical teaching at Bristol.

The School of Physiology and Pharmacology is about to roll out novel, interactive web-based support for first-year undergraduate practical teaching at Bristol.

The initiative, funded by the Applied and Integrated Medical Sciences Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (AIMS CETL), is an extension of the very successful JISC-funded eBiolabs system introduced in October 2009 by the School of Biochemistry.

In common with the current eBiolabs system and the School of Chemistry’s Dynamic Laboratory Manual developed by Bristol ChemLabS, the tools developed for physiology and pharmacology teaching enable students to access web-based resources (interactive animations, videos and quizzes) which help them to prepare for laboratory sessions.

‘Experience has shown that better-prepared students get much more out of the time spent in the lab, which is beneficial for them and leads to more effective and efficient use of both staff time and lab facilities,’ said Professor Judy Harris, Director of the AIMS CETL.

The new eBiolabs resources, which were developed in collaboration with Learning Science Ltd, also enable students to upload their reports from practical sessions and include web-based tasks to be completed after every lab session, on which they receive feedback.

The eBiolabs system will prepare students to use equipment such as blood pressure monitors and ECG machines, which they will then operate themselves in hands-on practical classes to study their own cardiovascular physiology. The team has also developed interactive simulations that allow students to rehearse technically challenging procedures such as setting up organ baths in order to test the pharmacological effects of drugs. The system also includes web-based material that prepares students for sessions with the Human Patient Simulators, another successful strand of the AIMS CETL.

Physiology and Pharmacology eBiolabs resources will be available to first-year BSc students at Bristol from the beginning of this term, and it is planned to make them available to medical, dental and veterinary science students from 2011-12.

The School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, also in the Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences, will roll out additional eBiolabs components in early 2011. These resources will help prepare students for laboratory sessions in medically important topics in microbiology, such as the acquisition of antibiotic resistance, and in the fundamentals of immunology. This phase of the programme has been funded by the UK Centre for Bioscience, the University of Bristol’s Alumni Association and the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund.